Bounty System... Just An Idea [Edited]

[Dicimiie]

What happens if the red runs in a private house?

That's pretty much the way it is now, especially around teh Yew Moongate. I suppose if the red wants to lock himself in his own house, there's punishment for his crime right there, since he can't hunt or kill while he's in the private house.

What happens if the red logs out? Chances are good it will take longer to find the red than it does for them to time out.

Again, if the red logs out, he can't be playing, so punsihment has been served, albeit in a different manner.

What happens if the red recalls?

This could be a problem I suppose. Not sure about the game mechanics of tracking, but I'm hopeful that the tracking arrow would keep track of that.

What happens if the red kills someone else and a seperate bounty hunter gets him before the first hunter finds him? Does bounter hunter #1 get to res kill for his bounty?

Since every player has a unique ID (I think), I'm thinking the system could handle keeping track of individual bounties. So the bounty hunter should onlyreceive the bounty that he/she signed up to deal with.

Does a bounty hunt have to be a 1v1 kill? If not, what if the bounty hunter doesn't get the kill?

While the bounty hunt doesn't necessarily have to be 1v1, the system should make it to where the bounty hunter or contract killer has to do 75% of the total damage against his target bounty to collect the bounty. The bounty stays on the target's head until he's been killed by the bounty hunter/contract killer.

How does a bounty hunter stay competitive in pvp when he has to have investigation skills?

I guess the people dedicated to becoming a bounty hunter/contract killer will need to get inventive. People on the boards complain all the time that UO has become too easy. He's your chance to make it a bit more challenging.

What happens if the bounty hunter's target dies to a monster?

Nothing. As stated above, the bounty is active until the bounty hunter/contract killer actually kills the target, or at least does 75% of the total damage to the target.

After we get past all these questions we have to answer the big one. Is 2 kills worth of insurance money really worth all the effort tracking down a red?

As stated earlier, this has little to do with the gold. It's all about the fun of the hunt. There are hundreds of ways to make tons of money in the game. Who needs one more? The little bit of gold you get from the kill is just an added bonus to fun times on the hunt.

 

[RoycroftLS]

I know it's really unfortunate, but I'm not convinced that it's possible to create a bounty hunting system that isn't highly exploitable for UO. Part of the problem is that small amounts of gold are irrelevant and larger rewards would cause reds to just kill themself with another char of theirs to collect the larger reward.

I don't know if I would go so far as to call it impossible to create a fair bounty hunting system.

What about a tournament style format? As in, pool all the collected bounties for a certain time period (like a week), and then distribute them to the bounty hunters according to their bounty "rating" for the week. Rating is calculated using a formula that includes the number of bounty kills and how much of a bounty each kill was. Ratings reset each new time period, and the higher your rating in relation to everyone else at the end, the larger your share of the bounty pool.

Of course, there would need to be some safeguards to prevent exploiting... like diminishing returns to the points you earn if you keep killing the same people (or characters from the same accounts) over and over again. And maybe scale the ratings so you need several kills before you can get one of the the top spots, to prevent the "get a large bounty, then have a friend kill you and share the spoils" scenario.

Whether or not such a format is easily implemented in game is a whole different story.

 

[Asmodai]

How bout this...not much risk to the red as it stands right now, he dies and loses insurance money, has to find a friend to heal or a red healer. Having to dedictate X amount of points to Forensic Eval.... not gonna find many 'bounty' hunters. This is what I propose...

Fred is a red. Bill is a blue. Bill is wandering about Felucca when all the sudden Fred pops out and kills him. Fred gets his insurance money from Bill. Bill can then go and 'hire' a bounty hunter. He enters into a contract of agreement with said bounty hunter. Bill offers say....15k for the death of Fred. Bounty hunter has 1 hour to find that red, kill him and then he recieves his 15k check from Bill. Upon death, the red needs some kind of 'punishment' or risk...so when he dies, he goes into stat loss for X amount of time. Just like in factions. Therefore adding some kind of 'risk' to being a PK. Loses insurance + stat loss for whatever the time may be. 5-10 mins. I think that could also help with the fast re-raids on spawns.

So, a blue dies, loses insurance. Hires a bounty hunter, offers him 1k-1million or whatever to kill said PKer. Bill gets a chance at revenge. Bounty hunter has a risk of losing his own insurance, but the plus of getting said check from the victim + the insurance money from the dead PKer. PKer, should they die, lose insurance money + stat loss for X amount of time.

I don't agree with 'un-insuring' one item so it's on the corpse. What if the red is looted by someone who was just standing around waiting? The bounty hunter wouldnt get their 'reward'.

I did like to cut up and collect heads as well. They should bring that back. Also, say another + for the PKer so they don't feel left out entirely...say when a red kills a blue X amount of gold is set on that PKers head and you can see a list of 'Hot Bounties' at a bulletin board. But the PK will only have gold thrown into the 'Hot Bounty' on their head only if the person they kill has 600+ skill points. To keep from reds rez killing a newbie blue. And that money comes from the game itself. Kinda like when you gate an NPC you get X amount of gold, or for turning in a reward. Same kinda idea.

And to keep from somebody stealing the PK's head to turn in for their reward, only the person w/the bounty can cut the body and the head goes into their pack, like a champ skull or arty.

I think a bounty system could be fun.

as a red, i like this idea ALOT more

 

[SixUnder]

Hail: The only way a bounty system can work, without being exploited like the old one was, is,

1. Take something away from the Red when he is killed, and
2. Give that something to the person that killed him.

In this manner, it does not benifit the Red to have a friend kill him, or to kill him self. The proabelm lies is, What to take away from the Red for getting killed, that is worth the effort of the Blue trying to kill him?.....and.....How to stop the Red from hiding whatever he may lose, on other charaters?

Maybe, have a npc that sells bounty tickets, "To those with the skills required" to be bounty hunters. The Ticket will, "Uninsure" any 1 item on a corps., or, unbond any 1 pet.........hehehe

yep and since pub 16 we no longer have perma skill loss. And now with insurance...blah.... but i still have me a castle full of heads:>

 

[popps]

Please discuss. I'd be interested to see what problems crop up and what solution could be created to remedy teh problem. I always thought the bounty system was a cool aspect of the game, and I was a little sad that it got abused and removed.

That is the problem with Bounty systems, they can be abused and if they can be abused, chances are that they will, unfortunately..........

Under the system you propose, what prevents the red to get a buddy (or a second account...) to get killed, cash in the bounty and split it with the friend who killed the red (or with noone if one kills themselves using a second account......) ?

The only way to prevent abuses is when there is a sore penalty for the red when getting killed. Something that far outvalues whatever gold one can profit from being killed.

And the problem is, that with soulstones NOT EVEN PERMANENT skill loss could work as a deterrant against abuses.....

Why ?

Well, simply because before getting killed the red would soulstone the skills, get killed and suffer skill loss and then take on the skills back from soulstones thus effectively cancelling any effects from skill loss........

Perhaps permanent stats loss could play "some" role as a deterrant though, to make stats back is rather easy and fast so, unless it was some hefty 90% PERMANENT stats loss (all 3 stats....), I doubt it could work as much of a deterrant.

The point is, IMHO, that any and all Bounty systems should ALSO bring in some hefty penalty from getting killed for reds in order for the Bounty system not to be abused.

Something really painfull that outdoes any gold profit one could make from getting oneself killed.

 

[Zosimus]

Great idea and both sides have good points. Like how the old skills forensic and tracking comes back to play.

My input is.....

On the gump you have the options to charge as a murderer or put a bounty on that person. This goes for any player red or blue. Not just reds. We all know some pk's are blue players who bank sit to stay blue and will take counts when needed.

Timer should be at least 48 hours max. Thats just in case the pk logs after he kills someone and may log in later. A pk could kill somebody then not log in 48 hours. The pk actually has to be in the game for 48 hours like burning counts to get credit.

Cant be killed by a guildmate or ally (blue or red) to get around it to collect the insurance.

I should add I have mutiple reds so Im for this. We have no true punishment. Its time for us to pay for our crimes blue or red when we take advanatge of the system so to speak.

If the pk player is caught and killed within the 48 hour timer then they have stat loss for 24 hours. They are also get a count since they were caught and killed within the time limit. This could also stack on top of mutiple kills. So they could be in stat loss for more then 24 hours if more then one bounty has been placed and the pk is killed within the time limit. That makes it where pk's are held responsabile for killing blues.

If the pk does not get killed within the 48 hour period then the insurance is doubled for the reward for the red since he got away free with no punishment. Hence the option of the bounty should cost more if it was chosen then giving a count.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

I thought the use of brackets in a subject line ( [ ] ) was reserved?